


Acceptance

by Eustacia Vye (eustaciavye)



Category: Pitch Black (2000)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-02
Updated: 2011-02-02
Packaged: 2017-10-15 07:41:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/158581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eustaciavye/pseuds/Eustacia%20Vye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Riddick's breath stopped at the familiar face in front of him in the reception line. The scent of her was a little bit different, cooler, but it was ultimately still the same smell of beautiful. He breathed in deeply, enough that there was a disturbed look in her eyes. "You're coming with me."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Acceptance

Riddick didn't want a fucking empire to rule. He wanted to be out there, running from mercs and finding new places to exist without having to constantly watch his back. Now that he was something like a king to people of various flavors of undead, he had to actually do shit. He had to be responsible. Fuck.

The entire Necromonger fleet was at his beck and call, and he wanted to get the hell away from everything reminding him of Kira and the preachers and all the people he had foolishly thought he could save. He shouldn't have bothered. People were useless. They died, they fought, they broke. No goddamn use in trusting any one of them. Vaako mentioned some stupid ass planet that was full of sun and sand and the glory of the Necromonger race and some bullshit like that. All he heard was that they had washed over the place like a plague, reducing the populace to Necromongers against their will. There hadn't been enough defense to stop them, and everyone, even the sick in the hospitals, were taken to the conversion chambers.

He looked over the planet, seeing the sandy continents from above the atmosphere. He insisted on landing dirtside. He had to see the place for himself; for a while he thought it looked like Hades, and he was almost convinced he could see bleached bones and cave systems in the shadows from the dunes. But he blinked and it was gone. There was nothing there but sand and Necromonger cities, and his chest felt tight with barely remembered pain.

The Necromongers insisted on parading themselves in front of him. They were like so much meat, and he couldn't even feel a stirring at the thought of hitting the sweet spot and bleeding them out. No challenge. They weren't fighters, and he needed someone to push him past his limits. Riddick had overcome the Necro leaders, and the only one chafing under his rule was Lady Vaako. And really, slitting her throat was probably necessary. He might get a moment's peace from feeling her blood flow across his fingers, but it would be temporary. Vaako might get bitchy if he did that, and he didn't feel like having to kick the man in the teeth just to reassert dominance. Vaako took care of all the minor shit he didn't want to deal with, which left him more time to be angry and feel that prophecies were a pain in the ass.

Riddick's breath stopped at the familiar face in front of him in the reception line. The scent of her was a little bit different, cooler, but it was ultimately still the same smell of beautiful. He breathed in deeply, enough that there was a disturbed look in her eyes. "You're coming with me."

He didn't give a flying fuck that this was a reception in his honor. If he was the goddamn leader, he could leave his own party whenever the hell he fucking felt like it. He slammed the woman against the wall, seeing the breath fly out of her lungs. Her hair was darker now, less blonde, though there were bleached out strands from the overwhelming sunlight on this hellhole of a planet. The scars on her neck were puckered and pale, just as Kira's had been, and she was ghostly white against the black of the formfitting dress she was wearing. She was completely covered, no skin showing, and Riddick couldn't be sure there was recognition in her eyes. Kira had remembered, but he couldn't see it until it was too goddamn late.

"Carolyn," Riddick said in a low voice, seeing her flinch at the name. "So you remember?"

"I need to go," she rasped. "Please, Lord Commander, I need to go..."

He grasped her throat in his hands. He could twist and simply break her neck, sever the spinal cord and watch her drop. Then she would meet her true death, and none of the fucking Necros would be able to do anything else to her. But she would also be dead, truly dead, and he was sick of the dead bodies he was leaving behind.

"How did you survive Hades?" Riddick growled, her slow pulse beneath his hands. Her eyes were wide, terrified, and he could feel his own blood rising in response to it. "Tell me," he commanded, stroking the curve of her throat, knowing just how deep the carotid would be. Arterial blood was so much prettier than venous, and it tasted so much better on his tongue.

"They found the beacon," Carolyn whispered, holding herself so very still. "They fried the demons, they found me, they put me in line." Her eyes slid away from his. "It almost hurt as much as when the creatures tried to gut me."

"Show me."

"Riddick," she pleaded, trying to turn away from him.

"Show me what they did to you," he snarled. He had to see for himself. She wasn't supposed to die for him, wasn't supposed to die at all, and here she was with death beneath her skin. He needed to see to be sure, that he wasn't simply wishing for someone he recognized in this entire empire he hadn't even wanted.

She didn't shake, though he could scent her fear. She didn't like to see the remnants of her old life, didn't like to think about the pain. Carolyn peeled the dress back, exposing herself to the waist for him. She couldn't meet his gaze, even when his hands rested over the mass of twisted tissue in the center of her chest and abdomen. He half turned her, seeing the mirrored scars across her back. Pinned between his massive hands, she seemed fragile. She wasn't the same Carolyn Fry he remembered, the strength of steel in her spine. "What else did the Necros do to you, Carolyn?" he asked, his voice like a blade. He knew knives, she didn't.

"They put me back together," she said, voice toneless and dull. "They gave me a place to live."

"Why here?" he asked. There was something he was missing.

She looked up at him with empty eyes. "I asked for a place with sunlight. I couldn't be trapped in the dark again. So they put me here and made sure I was nowhere near a ship."

"That changes now," Riddick snarled. His mouth crashed down over hers. Fuck, she tasted like the same kind of beautiful. Whatever they did to people to turn them into Necros had muted her scent unless there was strong emotion involved. They'd managed to crush the edges of her spirit, and he wanted to carve out holes of every Necro that was there when it happened to her. He wanted his Carolyn back, the one that met him on Hades and pushed past her fear to get shit done. He wanted this version of Carolyn to shed her skin and become the creature she had been all those years ago, the one that almost made him want to be a different man.

He palmed her breasts and she clutched at his chest. The stupid uniform was all black and silver fabric, stratchy as hell, and he laughed when she pulled it from his skin. Yes. He would bring her back, make her remember who she used to be. This place, this stupid goddamn planet was too much like Hades, a fucking slap in the face every time she woke up. Once she was back in space, back in her element, she would shine.

Riddick pushed the silly Necro dress down from her hips. It slid easily to the floor, and she was bare to him. One nice thing was that Necros didn't do underwear. He lifted her in his hands, seeing the acceptance in her eyes. This was years past due, and he slid home in one sharp thrust. Her nails dug into his back and the breath caught in her chest. "Riddick," she whispered, eyes locked to his. "God, you're really real."

"Did you think I wouldn't come back for you if I knew?"

"You're a survivor," she choked, clutching at his shoulders. Her hips tilted against his as she moved to lock her ankles around his waist. He drove deeper into her, and she made a mewling noise deep in her throat. "I didn't think I mattered that much to you."

"Then fucking think again," he growled, driving himself deep and hard into her. "You're mine, Carolyn. _Mine._ No one else gets to touch you. I'm the one that tastes you, I'm the one to keep you." He balanced her weight against the wall with one hand and grasped the back of her neck with the other. Her hair was fine and smooth against the fingers he tangled into it. It felt the same, smelled the same. "You belong to me."

She started to shiver in his arms, her breath coming in short gasps. "Riddick," she whimpered, fingers digging into the muscles at his shoulders. "Oh, God, please," she panted.

He thrust into her harder, faster. Her eyes rolled up toward the back of her head and her mouth had fallen open. He claimed it in a rough kiss, tongue in her mouth to taste her. She came, convulsing around him, tremors rolling through her. She wasn't particularly loud, but he suddenly wanted her to be. He wanted the entire fucking hall to know what he thought of their goddamn rituals and parties. Fuck it all, he'd rather have Carolyn on her back beneath him, pushed down on all fours, begging for him. He didn't want an empire to rule. He wanted the thrill of the hunt, the beast within sated only with sex or blood or meat between his teeth, his blades sinking down into the sweet spot, blood gushing in a fine spray.

Riddick came, his body pushing hers almost uncomfortably into the wall. She didn't say anything; she'd lived through worse, and this discomfort was mild in comparison. He'd been gutted once, so he knew the shock and pain that came along with it. He held her hands above her head and pressed his teeth against her pounding pulse in her throat. She didn't struggle against him; she had always been too smart for that shit. He had always been able to physically overpower her. It had been her mind that had drawn him as well as her scent. She was sharp, a survivor as well, but hadn't been honed into a blade as he had. Riddick pressed his teeth into her skin, and she was still beneath his mouth. He sucked at her skin, abraded it with his teeth, and the scent of her rose thick in his mouth.

"You're mine, Carolyn," he said, pulling back. He had marked her neck, and he felt a rush of pride at the sight of it. He drew his fingertips across it and watched her shiver under his touch. Her eyes were alive again, not the empty soulless things the Necros had pushed onto her.

"And what's the cost of being yours?" she asked, a fine edge to her voice.

God, she was fucking beautiful and that voice was back. He wanted to fuck her again.

"You've already paid it," Riddick growled, pushing his clothes back into place. "Now I get you off this goddamn hellhole."

"Where are you hiding me next?" There was bitterness in her voice, something else that he didn't know about the years before this day. Oh, he would break head and pull spines out of backs for this. He would skin the Necros that tried to break her, put them up as warning not to pull this shit with anyone else. He would cut a swath through their ranks, spill all the blood they'd taken against everyone's will.

Riddick merely grinned at her, eyes shining in the half light. It wasn't a kind smile, and she met it fearlessly. She had already lived through the worst pain the universe had to offer, and knew nothing could compare to it. He loved that kind of look.

"I own these assholes," he said, voice milder than his shark's smile. "I don't need to hide anything. You're with me, aren't you?"

Carolyn's eyes assessed his face, weighing something in her mind. He would dig deep at some point, uncover the missing years and break the fuckers that tried to change who she was. He would know who put that kind of caution into her. "I'm with you."

Riddick palmed the back of her skull, a sense of peace rolling through him. "You know how to fly, Carolyn. I'm going to give you a ship. We're going to break them all, piece by piece."

There was something fierce in her sudden grin, something that warmed Riddick. Their attempts to break her had changed her, but he was wrong about what had changed. He had thought they had broken her, or tried to soften the edges of her. Now he could see that she had simply been biding her time, pushing the hate and pain down deep, waiting for a good time to strike. She was like their captured Furyan, waiting for the moment she could try to undermine their belief.

"I'm glad you found me, then."

"Me, too," Riddick growled, then claimed her mouth in a possessive kiss. Suddenly being master of the Necromonger empire was much more desirable.


End file.
